Far from home, Ukrainian designers showcase fashion that was created amid air raid sirens

For much of the past year, Ksenia Schnaider and her team of seamstresses toiled away in their Kyiv studio, crafting her new collection of designer denim and luxury daywear even as air raid sirens, drone attacks and power cuts took over their lives and made production almost impossible to continue.

For Ksenia Schnaider and her fellow Ukrainian fashion designers, the show must go on despite the war in their country -- or precisely because of it.

For much of the past year, Schnaider and her team of seamstresses toiled away in their Kyiv studio, crafting her new collection of designer denim and luxury daywear even as air raid sirens, drone attacks and power cuts took over their lives and made production almost impossible to continue.

Schnaider, 39, fled Ukraine with her husband and young daughter when Russia invaded her country in 2022. They found a temporary home with a British family in a peaceful corner of southern England. But she hasn't put down the fashion business she founded 12 years ago, dividing her time between the U.K. and Kyiv, where all her garments are still being made against the odds.

"My team needs this sense of normality -- they told me they want to go to work and have something to do, to support each other, rather than staying home hiding," she added. "We want to show the world we don't give up."

On Tuesday she and two other Ukrainian fashion designers showcased their latest creations in a joint catwalk show at London Fashion Week, which is adopting Ukraine Fashion Week for the second time this year as the war drags on and Ukraine's fashion industry has nowhere to call home.

At the finale, they took their bows wearing a Ukrainian flag signed by three different military units. Some of those soldiers have died since signing the flags, she said.